The Way It Ends
by Wish on the Star
Summary: Sometimes you don't realize what you have before you're about to lose it.


Sagae Haruki dragged her feet across the floor. The short walk through the hall towards Room 2 had never before felt so painfully long. Her entire body was hurting from cuts and bruises, but that was nothing compared to the pain she felt in her heart.

She had failed her mission. Her mission had been to assassinate Ichinose Haru, so she could get the reward and feed her family, but now she had used her card and failed to complete the assassination within the time limit. This also meant that she would be expelled from the academy.

Haruki felt lost. What would she do now? She would have to return without any money whatsoever to aid her family, and her mother's condition was only getting worse. She had failed them.

Damn, she was so useless…

After what felt like an eternity, she arrived outside the room that she had been sharing with Inukai Isuke, attendance number 2, up until now. For some reason, she found herself unable to lift her hand and twist the doorknob.

She didn't know what to do once she entered the room. Was she just supposed to pack her stuff and leave? No, she didn't feel ready to leave quite yet. She still hadn't gotten any money for her family… And there was something else holding her back too, but she couldn't put her finger on it.

Shaking her head to rid herself of the thought, she turned the doorknob and entered the room that now suddenly felt so foreign to her.

"Yo!" she greeted, but the empty room came with no reply.

Haruki always liked the combined kitchen and living room here. It was fully furnished and beautifully decorated, yet still so spacious. Everything in this place was far more luxurious than anything she could ever hope to have back home. While she didn't care that much for materialistic matters, she had to admit that allowing herself some luxury for a while had been really nice. Her entire stay here had been kind of nice, in fact.

She'd never been able to experience the high school life this way before. She hadn't gotten to live in dorms, or set up plays or befriend other girls her age. Although she was well aware that it sounded pretty crazy, despite being on a mission to kill someone, it had been fun.

She sauntered into the bedroom to get her bag, but froze in her tracks as she spotted a person on the bed next to hers.

"Isuke-sama…" she muttered. She didn't know what else to say to the girl at the moment. Was there really anything to say at all?

Isuke eyed her up and down for a while, clearly noticing all the torn clothes and the bloody wounds all over her body.

"My, my… Must have been one hell of a fight. Too bad I missed it," Isuke commented in a bored tone. Haruki snorted. It was only to be expected that Isuke would say something like that. It wasn't as though she cared that she was leaving or anything.

"I guess you'll be leaving the academy now."

She opened the wardrobe and began stuffing pieces of clothing into her bag hurriedly, not turning to look at her soon-to-be former roommate.

"Yeah. More closet-space and one less competitor when it comes to killing Ichinose. Good for you," she retorted drily. Leaving was tough enough as it was. She didn't want to make it even worse by having some mushy goodbye moment with Isuke. Not that it'd probably happen anyway, 'cause Isuke didn't care about her leaving.

After the wardrobe was empty she headed for the bathroom to get her makeup and other beauty products. She could feel a pair of golden orbs eyeing her the entire time, but Isuke didn't say anything. She just watched her packing in silence.

After half an hour or so, Haruki finally zipped the last bag shut. She let out a small sigh as she cracked her knuckles. In the corner of her eye she could spot the pink haired girl frowning slightly. She turned towards her and noticed that she'd gotten some gel for her nails and started painting them.

"Well, that about wraps it up. Bye then, Isuke-sama," she said with a forced smile on her face. She wouldn't have needed to, however, because the other girl didn't even offer her a last glance. She just kept staring intensely at her nails, which suddenly made Haruki remember something.

She took the small bottle out of her jacket pocket and extended her left hand towards Isuke. After a second or two, she glanced up at Haruki's hand.

"What's that?" she asked, sounding a bit surprised. She probably hadn't expected Haruki to give her anything.

"I said I'd make it up to you, didn't I?" she simply replied as she handed over the nail polish. Isuke took it wordlessly, but didn't put it down. She just kept holding onto it as she looked at Haruki.

"What?" she asked awkwardly.

"Where did such a poor girl get a hold of this?" Isuke wondered out loud. The redhead just shrugged indifferently.

"I asked someone to get it for me." She didn't bother to mention how that someone was Nio, but it didn't really matter anyway.

"Consider your debt paid." While her tone was mocking, Haruki couldn't help but notice how she hadn't let go of the bottle yet.

Maybe she did mean something to Isuke, after all…

Just the thought made her feel warm on the inside, but at the same time it made it that much harder to walk away.

Yet again, she sighed heavily. She took a package of pocky out of her bag and proceeded to chew on one. She tilted the box towards Isuke.

"Want one?" she questioned.

A silence spread across the room and for a moment, Haruki wished that she could stop time. She truly wanted to stay in that moment, at least for a little while longer. She didn't want to leave yet.

"Last chance," she smirked playfully.

To Haruki's, and maybe also her own, surprise, Isuke reached out and grabbed a pocky. She slowly took a bite from it and chewed it.

"This is goodbye then," she said after swallowing. Haruki nodded slowly.

"I want you to know, that even though I didn't complete my mission, I don't regret my time here. It was fun getting to know everyone."

Their eyes met for a moment and Haruki saw Isuke's face soften and her lips twitch into a small smile.

"Take good care of your family, Haruki," said Isuke, quoting Haruki's words from earlier. At first she was a little taken aback, but then she found herself smiling.

"I will," she nodded as she started walking towards the door.

"Goodbye, Isuke."

* * *

As she exited Room 2, Haruki could feel the presence of another person in the hallway. She took a quick look around and spotted Hashiri Nio in the shadows, leaning against the wall with her arms crossed over her chest. She was grinning creepily, making Haruki shudder in discomfort. Nio had always made her feel uneasy. There was something really off about her…

"The school has arranged for a cab to come get you. It's waiting outside now," she informed, the grin still plastered onto her face.

"Okay," Haruki answered, "Did you want anything else?"

Nio walked closer in a way that made Haruki feel like Nio was a dangerous predator and she was her prey. Of course, that was ridiculous. She knew she could take down Nio. She'd put her in place when she commented on her family a while back.

"Was she grateful for the present you gave her?" Nio asked curiously. She decided to ignore the question. However, Nio was persistent and didn't let her off the hook so easily.

"It's sad saying goodbye, isn't it? Especially when you've grown so attached to someone," she purred devilishly.

Before she'd gotten another word out, Nio was grabbed by the shoulders and slammed into the wall. She gulped nervously.

"I told you before not to stick your nose into other people's business, didn't I?" Haruki growled in a low, yet threatening, voice. The blonde nodded and so she let go of her.

"Sorry, Haruki-san. I swear I don't have any ulterior motives. After all, you're leaving the academy. Personal interest is my sole reason for asking," she explained, now back to being cheery as though nothing had happened at all.

Haruki didn't trust her, by any means, but it didn't matter much anymore.

She ran a hand through her red hair and started muttering, more to herself than to Nio.

"If things had gone differently, Isuke-sama and I…" she trailed off, unsure of how to continue. She didn't know what could have happened, she just knew she wished it hadn't ended this way.

Why didn't things turn out differently?

Her and Isuke might have… become friends.

* * *

The room felt empty now that she had no one to share it with. When she'd first gotten here, she had wished for Haruki to be expelled just so she could have the room alone, but now she truly missed the fellow redhead.

Isuke knew that she wasn't very nice to people, and that she could be difficult to be around. During their short time as classmates and roommates, Isuke had said some mean things, and now she really wished she would have been nicer to Haruki while she had the chance. She wanted to talk to her some more, to get to know her better, and to become friends with her. She believed they could have become good friends in time. It was too bad they never had enough time…

That night, Isuke sat down on the bed that had formerly belonged to Haruki. Her smell was still in it. Isuke closed her orange eyes and inhaled deeply, Haruki's scent filling her nose. She imagined the girl's playful smirk, the glint in her yellow eyes, the peaceful expression on her face when she was asleep.

She lay on Haruki's bed for a long while before she managed to get up. When she finally did, she realized she'd been clutching something all the time she had been laying there.

She opened the small bottle, this time without ruining it, and started to paint her nails. It was still so odd to think about when she last sat on the bed and painted her nails, because back then Haruki had been sleeping soundlessly in the bed beside her. It had only been two days since then, but it felt like so much longer. She was all alone here now.

She'd never imagined she would miss her this much… That she'd regret her actions… That she would want to be friends with Sagae Haruki.

She really did want to be friends with her, but she realized it too late.

* * *

**So here you have it; the third fanfic in this entire fandom. I was very surprised at the lack of fanfiction, especially since I've seen people requesting them all over tumblr. This fanfic might not be very good, I didn't really feel like it turned out that well, but I'm publishing it anyway. The characters might be OOC, but it's because I feel like I haven't gotten to know them very well yet. There may also be some mistakes in the spelling or grammar seeing as I don't have a beta reader and I wrote this at 3 a.m.**

**If any of you recognize the plot, it's because I read something similar (it wasn't a story so I didn't really copy anyone else's writing) somewhere that I kind of based my story on. I would have added credits to whoever came up with the general idea that I kind of based my story on, but I can't find it again.**

**This is just a one-shot, but I plan to write more fanfics, both one-shots and multi-chapter stories in the near future, at least if I get positive response to this one. Reviews, favourites and follows are very much appreciated.**


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